Honest Trailer: Blade Runner [1982]

With the sequel released this week, the good people at Screen Junkies have delivered a timely relook at Ridley Scott’s sci-fi groundbreaker, Blade Runner.

To any student of cinema, Blade Runner is often held up as a shining example of what epic filmmaking should be, with nods to the forward-thinking production design, overall impressive visuals and philosophical musings on existence. Indeed, for a film focussing so heavily on identity, the Honest Trailer immediately nails the ironic issue with this movie: Which version is the real Blade Runner!?

For the sake of sanity, it deals with the original theatrical cut from 1982 and continues to confirm all the problems I have with it. On each attempt at watching Blade Runner, I get bored and fall asleep. Is it all the slow-ass eyeball/photograph/window staring that makes my eyelids so heavy? Well, now you mention it…

As divisive as this ‘masterpiece’ might be, it is undeniably influential across many genres of entertainment, which the Honest Trailer does correctly reference, albeit with an enhanced amount of tongue-in-cheek. Likewise, it doesn’t fail to address the full circling of Harrison Ford’s career to-date and remind you of the actors you may have even forgotten were in it at all.

In just under six minutes, the Honest Trailer will remind you of how bleak and miserable Blade Runner appears to be in short bursts, which mixed back into a just -under-two-hour movie, might explain why some people have such strong opinions about it. If the subsequent shorter re-cuts solve these problems, I’ve never been compelled to discover.

Given my love for Arrival, I’m hoping Denis Villeneuve has made something magnificent in the sequel, that might inspire me to give the original another go. Assuming someone can tell me which is the definitive version.

My particular highlight in this comedy critique is the clip of Starcrash, which is wonderfully showcased on the recent Mystery Science Theatre 3000: The Return. Before you see Blade Runner 2049, why not hop over the Netflix and watch a science fiction film that certainly doesn’t take itself too seriously.

If you’re still hungry for more Blade Runner ridicule, check out Cinema Sins’ Everything Wrong with Blade Runner video which you can see right here.